Chances
by awesomeninja09
Summary: "No. No way. There is a .001 percent chance that I will ever date you, Potter. And a .0001 percent chance that I'll marry you." "So, what you're saying is that there's still a chance? Cause I'm okay with that." OR, how Lily Evans falls for James Potter. And when she falls, she falls hard. One shot, Jily.


**Hi guys! I know, I know. I already have like a million one shots and definitely don't need another one. It's just that this idea has been with me for the past few days. And I might ass well warn you now: I don't know where I'm going with this. I just sat down at a computer and started writing. I have the basic idea down, nothing else.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters here. All of them (even Marlene McKinnon, Alice Prewett, Dorcas Meadows, and Mary MacDonald) belong to the one and only J.K Rowling, the queen of writing.**

 **Now that I have that out of the way, I might as well start the story, right? Well, here I go. My goal for this thing: 3,000+ words. Let's try it out!**

* * *

 **Seventh Year**

"I love you."

"No. No way. If you do, I certainly don't love you back, Potter. There is a .001 percent chance that I will ever date you. And a .0001 percent chance that I'll _ever_ marry you."

"So, what you're saying is that there's still a chance? Cause I'm okay with that." Potter grinned cheekily, his eyes sparkling with a humor that Lily definitely wasn't feeling at the moment.

"Shut _the hell_ up, Potter. I'm tired of you and all of your little games. I'm tired of you asking me out because you enjoy the chase. I'm _tired of it all_. So you shut up, _Potter_ , because I swear that I am _never_ going to love _you_. I am _never_ going to like you. I'm _never_ going to even _think_ about liking you for one millisecond of a millisecond, because _all_ that you are is a _little prat_ , and I don't care if I'm hurting your feelings right now, _Potter_ , and I _never_ will. I'm _never_ going to like you, Potter, and that's that. So quit wasting seconds of your _worthless little_ _life_ chasing me and asking me out over and over and _over_ again, because you're not going to get me. You're _never_ going to get me. You're _never_ going to be nice like Remus is, Potter. You're never going to be as complimenting as Peter. You and Black? You're _both_ little bits of-"

"Okay." Potter said quietly, eyes shining with something that defiantly hadn't been there before. The quietness in his voice made Lily stop in her rant, pause in her lecture. He obviously had something wrong with what she's said, but she didn't care. She really didn't care. He'd made Sev turn on her all those years ago, and that was unforgivable. "You can insult me. You can insult anything about me for hours and I'll take it in a breeze, but you have no right to insult my friends and family. And you're insulting my friends.

"Evans, I may have a major crush on you. I may have had that major crush on you for years and you've never even paid enough attention to me to notice it, which is sad since everybody has. You're going to grow up to be something brilliant, you'll probably end up working in a really high ministry position, if it doesn't get taken over by Voldemort.

"I know that I'm going to fight in this war, so what are you going to do, Evans? I've already seen horrors that no fifteen year old should have to see and nothing's going to change that. I know that I'll risk my life in the war for a friend or ally, and I know that I'll risk my life in this war for you. But what are you going to be doing? You're going to get married to a nice and perfect bloke who loves you and will never leave you. You're going to have a high ministry position as a job and will raise a kid or two or three, how ever many you want. You're kid is going to be lucky to have such a great mother and father and so on. You're life will be perfect. My life cant be perfect. There's a difference."

" _Right_. All you Marauders have perfect lives, I bet." Potter snorted at this. Lily raised her eyebrows in defense. "Fine. Tell me what's wrong with all of your lives."

"First off, Sirius comes from a family of dark, Slytherin wizards that support Voldemort. He's a Gryffindor that supports Dumbledore, refuses to join the dark lord, and has muggle things. Those two don't exactly clash. He's come to my house before in the middle of the summer with bruises littering his body and the after affects of the Cruciatus Curse." Lily's eyes widened as Potter continued. "And I bet that you've never seen Remus with his shirt off, yeah? He's covered in scars because of something that I'm not allowed to mention. You should be able to put the pieces together, with how he's sick once a month and it revolves around a certain time of the month. And he reads too often and keeps up on his work because of it. Anyway, yeah. And Peter has a nice family, but has trouble in all of his classes. He's lucky that Remus is so patient. If he weren't, Pete would be failing."

"And what about you?" Lily asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"My parents. One has a high ministry position and is working for higher, the other is a healer at St. Mungos. They're always away. When I was around five, I once had only one parent with me for the majority of my birthday. Mum had been out of town on the day."

Lily suddenly felt something unusual in her gut. It was a feeling that most people get when they felt bad about something. Guilt? But it couldn't be. This was Potter that she was dealing with. How could she be feeling... guilty?

"Evans, I really, really like you. But you're not perfect. I'm not perfect, either. Nobody is perfect. We Marauders' just know how to wear good masks. Someday, when you know us well enough, if you get to know us well enough, you'll be able to see the cracks in out masks. But none of us are perfect." With that, James Potter stalked away.

The feeling in Lily's gut intensified. What she had said to Potter was extremely unnecessary. Sure, he was a prat. But did he really deserve what she'd said to him? She knew that he loved her and that anything that she said could hurt his large ego, but the hurt that had shown in his eyes right then, that was real pain. It was real hurt, not just the kind used to have people feel bad or you, nor the kind that's meant to hurt you. No, that was real hurt, and Lily Evans was, no matter how much it hurt her ego and would boost his, determined to apologize. Now, how to get into the boys dormitories without attracting attention... Lily had an idea. She didn't know if it was any good, but it was an idea. She was bound to make it work.

* * *

The fifth years boys dormitories was a strange and wondrous place. There were five beds (one empty one) and all four used ones displayed completely different personalities.

The one closest to the door had crumpled sheets that were ore than partially on the floor, dirty clothes pushed up against one side of the bed and in the trunk, a very messy trunk to begin with, and a whole bunch of nonmoving muggle posters hung upon the walls around it. The pictures were what led her to believe that it belonged to Sirius Black. She remembered what Potter had said about his best mate. _"He's a Gryffindor that supports Dumbledore, refuses to join the dark lord, and has muggle things."_

The bed next to that one had semi-neat sheets that were at least all the way on the bed, dirty clothes only in the trunk, a semi-neat trunk (minus the dirty clothes), and a letter of some sort to someone on the little nightstand next to the bed. It belonged to Potter. _"My parents. One has a high ministry position and is working for higher, the other is a healer at St. Mungos. They're always away."_

The one across from that had a made bed that looked like it had been done in a hurry, a textbook opened to a random page on the bed, dirty clothes that seemed to be shoved under the bed, and a few muddle pictures of a family. Peter's. _"And Peter has a nice family, but has trouble in all of his classes. He's lucky that Remus is so patient. If he weren't, Pete would be failing."_

The last one obviously belonged to Remus. There was a perfectly made bed, no dirty clothes in sight, a few books stacked up on his nightstand, and a single calendar on the walls above his bed. There was extra parchment on the bed, but that was the only thing that really seemed out of place. _"You should be able to put the pieces together, with how he's sick once a month and it revolves around a certain time of the month. And he reads too often and keeps up on his work because of it."_

Lily entered the room cautiously, careful to not make any sound. She snuck over to Potter's trunk, grabbed something out of it, and admired it. She had grabbed a beautiful silky cloak that had wondrous designs on it. Sadly, she didn't have much time to admire the cloak before throwing it on in an effort to stay hidden. She had seen the doorknob of the dormitory turn out of the corner of her eye. Potter and Black were entering the room, with Remus between them. All that she had to do was get Potter alone, then...

Wow. She sounded like a creepy stalker girl. Well, Lily kind of was stalking. No matter.

"Sorry, Moony. We cant take you yet. it's not until tomorrow night..." Potter was saying. Black carefully let go of Remus and walked over to the calendar above his friends bed. He grabbed a quill and crossed off another day.

"Yup." He sighed. "Full moons tomorrow nigh, not tonight. Sorry, buddy. We'll take you to Madam Pomfrey right after tomorrow's breakfast, though."

Lily's eyes widened. She had just put the pieces together, like Potter has said that she would. _"And I bet that you've never seen Remus with his shirt off, yeah? He's covered in scars because of something that I'm not allowed to mention. You should be able to put the pieces together, with how he's sick once a month and it revolves around a certain time of the month."_ How had she not noticed before? It was all so obvious. Heck, _Moon_ y... Lily was so stupid.

"What?" She whisper yelled as quietly as possible. "Werewolf?"

Neither Potter nor Black had heard her, but she had forgotten about werewolves canny sense of hearing around the full moon. Of course, lily had read up on that sort of thing.

"Who's there?" Remus asked, eyes narrowed and suddenly alert.

"Moony," Potter soothed. "It's only Padfoot and I."

"No." Remus argued. "I heard someone else. They whispered 'What? Werewolf?'"

Potter and Black looked at each other before simultaneously pulling out their wands and aiming an nowhere in particular. "Who's there?"

"Remus," Black said, suddenly serious. "Can you smell where they are?"

Remus was quiet for a moment before pointing close to Lily's direction. "Somewhere around there." He answered, waving his finger back and forth. Lily was right in the center of where he was pointing.

She was frozen in shock. _Were his senses_ really _that good around the full moon?_ she wondered.

"Padfoot? Operation Cloak." Potter mumbled.

"Code purple, green, purple, blue, yellow." Black answered.

"Go."

They both ran around both sides of the room and, at the exact same time, yelled " _Homenum Revelio_!"

Lily was in shock. So much shock, that she didn't even notice when the cloak was ripped off her head by none other than Remus Lupin.

"You're a werewolf." She stated dumbly. Remus lost all energy that he'd had before and sighed. Potter and Black were, for once, silent.

"Yes," He responded after a few seconds. "I am."

Lily started thinking back to every memory of him. How he'd always be gone or a few days at a time, how he always managed to redirect any conversation away from his past or family or life.

"Wow. I'm so stupid." Lily shook her head. Remus seemed taken aback.

"Okay then. I- I'll go." He stood up, but winced and he did so. Lily, realized this, stood up to help him walk. He raised his eyebrows. "What re you doing?"

"Being a good friend."

"Why?"

"Because I don't know how you put up with lycanthropy."

"This school is filled with nutcases, aren't it?"

"With Black and Potter here? Yes, it is."

"Agreed."

"Hey!" Black wined. "We're your best mates and there's no getting rid of us. We've told you before and we'll tell you again, Moony. Nobody cares about your Furry Little Problem!"

"Furry Little Problem?" Lily questioned. It was a rather weird nickname for lycanthropy.

"Please don't ask." Remus sighed, still leaning partially on the seventh year Gryffindor girl. "Seriously though, Lily. Thanks."

Lily left their dormitory soon after that, and only when she did, did she realize that she had forgotten to apologize. Yet, she thought that she and the Marauders were closer, still. But that mean tone thing to her: She was closer to James Potter. Weather that be good news or bad news, it was news. And she was going to figure out why.

* * *

"Are you going to complain about 'the Potter boy' again?" Mary MacDonald, one of Lily's closest friends, asked as soon as the redhead stepped into the girls dormitory.

"Actually, no."

"Who are you and what have you done with Lily Evans?" Marlene McKinnon, another friend of Lily's, joked.

"I have abducted her and taken her to Mars, where she will face ultimate death in exactly twenty four hours, twelve minutes, and thirty two seconds." Lily answered in a monotone voice, grinning when she saw her friends laugh.

"Oh well." Alice Prewett, a sixth year that spent most of her time with the seventh years, commented dryly. "I guess we'll just have to live on without her. It's a shame, really. Who am I going to copy off of for my homework assignments?"

Everyone laughed when Lily looked partially murderous and partially playful.

"But seriously." Dorcas Meadows, the final girl in their dormitory, commented. "What have you done with Lily Evans? This must be a parallel world; I've never heard her not complain about 'that Potter boy' before!"

"But seriously! I'm not going to complain _this time_."

" _This time_." All of the girls repeated, looking around at each other before giggling like crazy.

"Why are all of my friends so weird?"

"Because we're not leaving, so you're stuck with us!" Alice grinned. It reminded Lily of what Sirius Black had said to Remus. _"We're your best mates and there's no getting rid of us."_

"Okay, okay. So, what are we going to do now?" Lily asked. Her friends were playing gobstones with one another. They had stopped when Lily walked in.

"Well," Alice picked up the pillow from the spare bed in their dormitory. It was the bed that she used when she was using the dormitory for something. "We could..." She trailed off and finished her sentence by smacking Marlene in the face with the pillow. Alice giggled as she saw Marlene's stunned expression.

That pillow fight would probably go down in history as Hogwarts' Greatest Pillow Fight ever.

And as Lily Evans was falling asleep that night, she was reminded of the lyrics of a song that had come out a few years earlier called Perfect Day by Lou Reed. She quietly hummed the one stanza of that song to herself as she drifted off into unconsciousness.

"Just a perfect day  
You made me forget myself  
I thought I was  
Someone else, someone good"

And even her unconscious mind knew that it was talking about James Potter.

* * *

A few weeks after 'The Werewolf Incident,' as Lily started to call it, she was working in the Head's Room (since Lily Evans was Head Girl, something that she was very proud of) when James Potter walked in (because he was Head Boy, something that she was no too proud of).

"Hey, Evans. What are you doing?"

"The Head work that _you_ were supposed to help me with, Potter."

"Well, sorry!" He sat down and started helping Lily sort out the names of different people in Hogwarts into houses alphabetically.

"You know," Potter stated after a few minutes. "This would go by a lot faster if you were to use magic." he muttered a spell and all of the names sorted themselves into alphabetical order by last name and by house. To say that Lily was embarrassed would be a complete understatement.

"Well, I- I'm going to go return those to McGonagall. She'll be happy that we're done early. Thank you, James. Have a nice night."

She only realized exactly what she had said when she was in her dorm that night, letting sleep overcome her. _I'd called him James... And it felt right._

* * *

"I really don't know what to do!" Lily complained as she sat in the compartment in the train on the way back home for the last time. "I know that I like him and-"

"Lily!" Mary interrupted. "You like him, right?"

"Well, definitely yes."

"Any you want to date him, right?" Marlene added.

"Uh, yes."

"Then go ask him out!" Alice finished.

"But the man is supposed to ask the woman out and he had asked me out for years and I always answered no. What if he no longer has feelings for me? What if-"

" _Lily_! Go and ask him out!"

"Fine! I will when we get off of the train."

* * *

"J- James?" Lily asked, stumbling for the first time while speaking. James raised his eyebrows, but answered with a quick "Yes?" he looked back to see if his parents had arrived at the platform yet. Seeing that they hadn't, he turned back to Lily.

"Will- Will you go out with me?"

It was as if everything had slowed down. Everyone was moving slower, seconds were hours. The only thing that Lily could see was James Potter's face as it split into the widest grin imaginable.

"Merlin, Evans! Yes!"

"Hey, that's Lily to you." She grinned. Both of them walked out of King's Cross happier than they'd been in months.

* * *

"Lily Evans," James bent down on one knee in front of her. They were at a restaurant with both of their families, most of the people which were smiling (minus Vernon and Petunia Dursley). "Would you make me the happiest man on Earth, and marry me?" Nearby people seemed to quiet down and look at the scene with interest. Young kids were being young kids, and older boys were wolf whistling.

Once again, time slowed down. Lily's eyes widened and glistened with tears as she gasped and nodded. "Merlin, Potter!" She answered, repeating the words that her boyfriend- no, _fiancé_ , had used when becoming her boyfriend. "Yes!"

They kissed, and everything was perfect for a couple of seconds.

"Lily?" James asked once they'd broken apart.

"Yes?"

"I guess that I was lucky enough to get the .001 percent of you being my girlfriend, and the .0001 percent of you being my wife."

"I guess so. You are one lucky man, James Potter."

"Yes I am."

And everything was right in the world.

Don't believe me? Go back and read the first three words in this story. You'll understand.

* * *

 **Okay. Wow. I had not planned for this to come out like... this. I'd planned for it to be completely different. but I must say, I like this much better. It shows how the bond between Lily and James formed over time. I must say that it's longer than I'd planned for it to be, but who a I to complain? This is the longest oneshot that I've written, and I'm actually very proud of it.**

 **Should I be proud of it or not? Please tell me in a review! If everyone who read this would review, I would be the happiest person on Earth. Please review! I love constructive criticism, just no Flames, please.**

 **Thanks for reading! I know that I should be working on my other two stories, Complaint Department and TB3, but I felt like taking a quick break from those and just had the urge to write some Jily. Thanks for reading!**

 **-Awesomeninja09**

 **P.S, Please review! ;)**


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